welcome to wusa 9news. thank you for joining us. a new controversy is swirling around the obama administration. i began with a british newspaper broke the story that the government is indiscriminately collecting records, even of those not expected of wrongdoing. >> the government is defending a program to collect phone records of americans. the practice does not allow the national security agency to listen in on anyone's phone calls. it relates to meta data, such

as a telephone number or the length of a call. john miller is a former deputy director of intelligence. he says the key is not content but numbers that might link terrorists to u.s. citizens. >> everybody knows if they're listening in on american citizens without a very special order or ruling with their lawyers, they're going to jail. >> britain's guardian newspaper first reported that a court order is directing verizon to give the nsa a copy of meta data on customers even if they're expected of no wrongdoing. the act that was amounted after 9/11 gives the government sweeping legal authority to make demands on phone carriers, but some believe untargetted surveillance goes too far. >> i can the american people deserve to know whether their government is scooping you will up of their phone records regardless of whether they did anything wrong. >> verizon has not commented on

the report. danielle nottingham, cbs news, the white house. >> verizon has 121 million customers in the united states. it was a capitol hill institution, one of the oldest hardware stores in the district. they've been recused to rubble after a massive fire tore through the building last night. here's the latest from the scene. >> reporter: firefighters and agents with the atf will stay here for several days investigating and looking into the cause of the blaze that destroyed this institute on capitol hill. it did not destroy, however, the spirit of the community here. lots of folks coming out and are now rallying in support. it was the hardware store for generations of families around since 1920. from the creekky wooden floors

to the high shelves, it was full of character, but what made it special was the people. last night was so motional i couldn't watch it. it's just a community center. i happened to be a store. >> a neighbor and a part timer was not working when the fire broke out at 6:30 yesterday evening, but many of her friends were. firefighters rushed to the scene to evacuate customers and employees until the flames forced them out too. the blaze burned for more than six hours. >> there's a lot of materials here that burned. it's an older building. that's the main contributing factor. we have an area that will help the investigators narrow down the costs. >> in the early morning hours, firefighters doused water on the hot spots. neighbors stopped by to document the destruction. then they look to the garden shop with the flowers still in

bloom. consider it a sign that the heart of it will prevail. >> thankfully everybody got out safely. three firefighters were injured. they're expected to be okay. on capitol hill, wusa9. >> meanwhile, in philadelphia, crews worked through the night at the scene of that building collapse. workers pulled a 61-year-old woman from the safety of the rubble. she's one of 14 people injured when the four-story building collapsed yesterday. at least six people were killed. the collapse caved in the roof of a thrift shop next door. officials do not know exactly how many people were inside the store when it happened. >> we were on top of the roof pulling him out. when we got there. all you could hear was help and maybe see a hand or something through the rubble. >> the collapsed building was empty at the time.

the construction cruise had been working to demolish the structure. officials say there were no existing violations on the structure and the company had proper permits for demolition. >> the body of u.s. senator frank laudenburg was brought to the capital this morning. the democrat will live in repose until his burial at arlington national cemetery. he was the last world war ii veteran still serving in the senate. he died of pneumonia on monday at the age of 89. attorneys for george zimmerman requested that the judge hearing the case allow some witnesses to testify confidentially. the judge denied that request. zimmerman has been charged with fatally shooting trayvon martin in florida. the 17-year-old was not armed when he was shot. the defense says some of the witnesses fear for their safety. zimmerman is expected to go to

trial next week. so this is the year of the cicada, but many of us have yet to see any of them. however, some living in the region have been seeing the bugs already. you will meet them, when we come back.

when it comes to pedestrian safety, montgomery county police say both pedestrians and drivers absolutely share the blame for accidents. so so far this year we've had so many fatalities from people crossing the street. there have been some unusual circumstances. >> there have been. we've had 11 people killed so far this year, pedestrians killed so far this year. it's usually a 50/50 split between the driver's fault and

the pedestrian's fault. had some odded circumstances this year. we had a person making a u turn. went up over the curve, hit someone who was sitting at a bus stop. we had a panhandler who was trying to get money from cars. he was standing in the median strip. two cars got in a crash, one came up and hit the panhandler and she was killed. we've had very odd circumstances this year. we had a record low number of pedestrian deaths last year, and we're not even halfway through the year, and we're up to 11. so we're really focusing on trying to prevent this crash. >> now, you've talked about the unusual circumstances. i still see people crossing in the middle of the street, not going by light. that's just foolish. >> it is. it's one of the things that we focused on. we've identified the areas where we've had the most pedestrians and the most crashes. we've got police officers that are enforcing pedestrian laws,

forcing the -- if a vehicle doesn't yield the right of way to a pedestrian, we're citing the driver. last year we cited 2,000 pedestrians for crossing against the light. >> yes. >> we're doing pedestrian stings. we're actually having police officers in plain clothes walk across the street with the light. if a driver does not stop for them, we're citing the driver,. >> i've seen that happen. that's good. >> most importantly we're concentrating on the routes that the kids walk to schools. the most dangerous time for a child on a school day is when they're going to and from school. >> yes. so we've got to make those routes safe for them. we'll really pose -- focusing our efforts so the kids can get in safely. >> they do a good job. >> absolutely. >> all right. thank you, always a pleasure to have you with me. >> all right. howard is up next with your

forecast. >> sprinkles around here, heavier rains to the west right now. allergy count. let's get some of this stuff cleaned out. the grass pollen has been bad for a couple of weeks now. i'll be back to look at doppler9000 and the latest on tropical storm andrea when we return.

well, you may not have heard them, but if you live in prince williams and louden counties, the buzz has grown loud. that's where the cicadas are. the swarm of cicadas is the in the height of mating season. it's the male's mating call. the residents say it's not bothering them. the real announces is there's so many of them. >> et gets in the way when you're walking to the bus stop or trying to catch a cab be other than that, they don't bother me. >> the evening is the quickest, so they're there. >> thankfully the buzzing settles down as darkness falls.

the cicadas have a rhythm to their day, so it's a quiet night sleep for everyone around here. the insects only appear once ever 17 years, and their life cycle is as weird as their appearance. they climb out of the holes and start making their ways up the trees to find their mating spots. they shed their shells in the meantime and many of them are found on the trees here. >> once the mating has completed, the females will go to the ends of these tree branches and lay their eggs. then their life mission is complete. they die. but the more they emerge from these eggs and drop to the ground, thus completing the life cycle. the symphony is almost over. we'll see you again in 2013. >> as long as you know they don't bite and can't harm you, it's fine. >> i'm erica grow, wusa9. >> the book experts say these

cicadas, known as group two, are not evenly distributed. so while southern maryland and parts of virginia are buzzing, the rest of virginia is recently cicada free. however group ten cicadas were in the area in 2004 and they're due back in 2021. keeping your family safe with weather call, a custom message sent to your phone when severe weather is in your neighborhood. wusa9 first alert weather. >> we're dealing with tropical storm andrea, the first storm of the season, getting closer to the florida coast. now, been pouring over florida most of the day. the rains are lifting into georgia. this is a tornado watch spot. i will issue another one likely into if evening hours as we're dealing with bands of heavy rain, it's very common for systems who have tornado watches. they can spin up. there's a center of

circulation. the cloud tops, look at the satellite warming. >> storms are going they would where it is and lose a little steam. it's moving off here. there's the center along the coast here over the next couple of hours. at 11:00, winds gusting to 70, moving northeast at 15. it's moving across the florida coast by 3:30 or so in the afternoon. we'll take it off the georgia coast. lower parts of south carolina tomorrow morning, crossing north carolina tomorrow. being over toward norfolk, virginia beach tomorrow evening. so this is going to throw rain our way. going to throw wind along the coast. 40, 45, 50 miles an hour. it's right around the center. so we'll watch that. it's quickly going to race away. the good news here, still could drop a few inches of rain, because it's a quick hitter, too much wind damage. the weekend, this is not going to mess with the weekend. not to say we're going to be completely dry, but it will not

be a problem tomorrow afternoon. we do have tropical storm warnings, not only on the west coast, but the east coast of florida all the way up now into areas of southeasten, southeasten -- virginia. that's obviously for tomorrow and into tomorrow night until the storm passes. yellow alert day around here. we've had a dry morning but showers are on the way for the afternoon. temperatures climb only to the mid-70s now. the cloud cover has thickened up. i don't think we're going to get too much warmer. out west, still in the 60s with those scattered showers and storms this evening. it certainly could mess with the nationals-mets game that starts at 7:00 tonight. look at the radar. you see the rain here continuing to move northeast, generally staying west of d.c. we've had light sprinkles that have come through town here. by far you see the darker green, yellows. this is where we've seen the

steadier, heavier rains throughout the morning. even up toward the -- then you go south of harrisburg, looks like more moderate rain, trying to come up 81 and across into blueridge. where it's been raining, it's been cooler. low to mid-60s cross laray and harrisburg. we're up to 74. just a little tiny bit of sun. outside on the weather camera, plenty of clouds, couple of light sprinkles, 74 in town. humidity 62%. southeast win at 14, helping to bring in moisture from the atlantic. you see the upper level impulses that continue to feed in. there's the tropical moisture into the carolinas coming in. as we get into tonight and tomorrow, look how the rains really increase. once again, really waves of heavy rain that will be with us

on friday. i'm thinking 1-3 or 4 inches of rain by saturday. possible storms, tomorrow upper 70s. again, a yellow alert day. rain heavy at times, storms embedded in that. by saturday, sunny breaks, a few showers possible, maybe thunderstorms. then that afternoon, thunderstorm pattern with warm days will be with us. right through tuesday. a little dryer on wednesday. highs creeping

if you like crab cakes like i do, you can have all the crab cakes you want this sunday. all you have to do is go to the

restaurant. it's located next to the museum. i have scott bruno here, the chief chef. let me tell you, not only will he be competing, there are going to be chefs from all the top restaurants in washington, dc in a crab cake competition. you can eat all you want. so he has brought his famous recipe here with me. he's made some baby crab cakes. >> we made little cute baby ones, a big one. so basically the great thing about crab cakes is they're local, from maryland. it's the best crab in the world. the best you can get. >> all right. so we just try to be simple with this evening and really let the flavor of the crab come through. >> you're sauteeing? >> yes. >> a little bit of shallots, garlic, celery, a little bit of butter. simple. we add a little bit of chives,

chopped parsley. we add a little bit of salt and pepper. >> okay. >> you can do this, a little bit of sugar. that's important. >> sugar, that's the secret ingredient. a little bit of sugar, depth of flavor. >> okay. we just warm this down until we make the vegetables soft, put it in a bowl, simple. >> i will say that first. >> then we add mayonnaise. since we're south of the mason- dixon line, we use duke's mayonnaise. >> that's what you say in the advertisement on tv. duke's is the best. >> i have a theory, bd and ad, before dukes and after dukes. it's the real deal for sure. >> that's really all the filler we have. 30 seconds. >> then we have the beautiful crab meat. put that together. little bit of breadcrumbs.

that's it. >> okay. i'm going to flip that over. look at that. you can get that at the restaurant anytime. >> this is on our lunch menu. >> go to my website to get all the information for this fundraiser. it is really going to help, and you can get all the crab cakeous want. 575 pennsylvania avenue northwest right next to the museum. >> thank you. >> thank you, scott. it smells so good. >> i've been there. hey, weatherwise, showers moving in this afternoon from the west. you're going to stay wet out west. upper 70s tomorrow and then we're looking at 85 on saturday. tomorrow is going to be a wet day with trouble from andrea we'll have the latest at 5:00. >> thank you. keep the umbrellas handy. don't forget to go to www.tracyheyward.com and join us at 5:00 p.m. bye-bye.

[ door opens ] >> lauren: oh, michael, thank god. oh, thank god. >> michael: what? what's wrong? is it fenmore? is something wrong? >> lauren: no, no, no. he's fine, he's fine. i didn't mean to scare you.